Welcome to project 1 in our series of Valentine blog posts. Tamar and I have lots of cute DIY/tutorial projects planned over the next 5 days and we're excited to be sharing them with you!
I have to admit that we don't actually celebrate Valentines Day in our household, but the idea of making sweet things for my loved ones always appeals to me, so I couldn't wait to come up with something that was love inspired for my first tutorial.
Some of my long term readers would remember our stamp making sessions (another link here) a couple of years ago. I know that a lot of you stocked up on stamp making supplies and set to work creating your own stamps, so hopefully you'll be able to pull them out of the cupboard again and create your very own love stamps!
Making your own stamps is fun, easy and very affordable. You need some carving tools and also the rubber for carving. For this project I just bought some cheap erasers, which cost me $1 for the set of four. If you want to create some larger stamps, you should be able to pick up an 'ezy carve' printing block (or similar) for around $8 at your local art store. I bought a pack of carving tools (also from the art store) for $6 - $7. Ofcourse there are some fabulous (and slightly more expensive) tools out there for stamp making too, but when you're just starting out and don't need to do super intricate carving, the cheap ones are perfect!
You'll also need a pen/pencil and a stamp pad :)
Once you carve your first stamp I just know that you'll be super addicted!! We are :) The hardest part is deciding what to carve on your love stamp.
Use a pen/pencil to draw on your design. It's really important that you write all your text backwards, so that when you stamp, it appears around the right way.
Then, start carving!
Once you think you've carved out your design, do a little test stamp on some paper. You might need to carve off a bit more rubber in places here and there so it stamps nicely.
Keep on carving :)
Another cute idea is to carve out the actual design (like the XOX above) and leave the main part of the eraser intact - it gives you such a different look for your stamp.
Once you're all carved out, the fun bit begins - stamping! We stamped up a whole batch of envelopes, but there are lots of other uses for your stamp too. Here are a few ideas:
♥ Make sweet love tags & attach to gifts
♥ Give them to your children with some A4 paper - they can stamp up some pretty love writing paper
♥ Write love notes and seal them with a stamp
♥ Wrap up the stamps all pretty and give to a friend
P.S. I'll be back later with a fabulous sponsor special offer for you all.
P.P.S. Pop over to Tamar's blog and check out her first project, it's very sweet!
